As I have been getting better at trading and investing, I have been finding that I am doing things different in life and examining all decision making processes a little different. As I keep getting better and better and learn to trade different timeframes and asset classes, I continually am finding that what I am learning in the market is providing me insights into my own personal comfort level in life, how to evaluate other people, ideas, companies, news, politics, etc. The list just keeps going. Really everything that I used to know in life has been affected by my experiences over the last eight years of going from knowing nothing about the financial markets to doing a fair amount of investing and trading (and at least beating the returns that I get from the money I still have managed by someone else).
Of course this got me thinking about how everyone else views this. I started looking around and haven’t really found any research on the topic, there is some academic research on external influences to trader/investor behavior (such as mood, political events, etc.) – but virtually nothing going the other way about how participation in the market influences behavior in life. For whatever reason I am finding this to be endlessly fascinating and am curious how it relates to people who trade part time, people who trade full time, people who just stick their money in a year dated fund and forget about it, etc. Does the type of participation affect everyone the same (for example does it affect people who start companies different than people who are employees at companies)?
I am of course asking that if you find this remotely interesting to participate in my quest for figuring this out. I am starting small – with a short 10 question survey. If you have anecdotal information or some insights into research that I am unaware of please let me know. If you would at least take the survey I would appreciate it!